


Lost and Found at Sea.

by FeliciaAmelloides



Series: A Oneshot a Day... [132]
Category: NTverse, nonfandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Badly Written, Child AU, Fluff, Island of Selkies, M/M, Magical Elements, Selkies, Storms, Very fluffy, different timeline, mild violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-11
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2019-05-05 12:47:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14618916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeliciaAmelloides/pseuds/FeliciaAmelloides
Summary: Peter is a young selkie who doesn’t heed his elders’ warnings.San is a human who needs his help.





	Lost and Found at Sea.

**Author's Note:**

> Why do I keep writing these? Tagged Nonfandom this time because the NTverse isn’t actually a proper fandom- it only has two members. But I like the NTverse, so I’ll write for it anyway. This is an AU set in a different time and a different world in which Peter and San meet under different circumstances but at around the same age.
> 
> To those of you (aka everyone)who don’t understand the NTverse, you don’t really need to for this- it’s so different from the actual thing that I’d class it as a stand-alone.
> 
> As per usual, sorry for my awful writing.

Deep within uncharted waters lies an island. 

Well, actually, there are quite a few islands in those uncharted waters, but none are quite as special as this one.

Surrounded by multitudinous seas is a place filled with vibrant flora, beautiful valleys, low-lying banks of earth and the beginnings of a civilisation unlike any seen before. Huts of various sizes made of coloured clay and hand-crafted bricks lined the valleys, with well-kept pathways connecting them like strings in a tapestry. Some huts were for storage of various items or were considered community centres, but the majority served as homes to the residents of the paradise.

However, these residents are far from being normal.

On the surface, they have the form of humans. Mostly female with a few exceptions, they roam the land in everlasting beauty and often content at their peaceful surroundings, donning long white fur coats even in the peak of summer. They never dare to remove the coats. Nearly every woman who does so will leave and never return to the island. Nearly every woman who does so dies.

In the water, though, they are different still.

As soon as one of these people enters the water, their human form is shed in favour of a sleek, streamlined body covered in long white fur. Bright, sharp black eyes will peer out from beneath the swathes of warm fur as they swim and play, flippers pushing the water aside as effortlessly as if it were air. To some, the ocean will always be their true home. To others, the land is a better environment. And then there are a few who just want love and acceptance, no matter what.

These are the selkies, creatures of the island in the middle of uncharted waters, blessed by the goddess who once walked amongst them.

And this is the story of one such creature, a young one who knows little of the world but wants to find out more. His name is Peter. 

It was winter, and a vicious storm was tearing up the sea outside. Although Peter’s mother had warned him to stay away, his curiosity got the better of him and he approached the ferocious tempest to watch the waves. They churned up the water like an angry monster, sending spray and sea foam flying everywhere. Peter walked closer without thinking, enamoured by the light glinting off the water. To him, it was beautiful.

A noise startled him from his reverie and he jumped backwards, terrified. That noise had not been one from the ocean he loved so much, and so it must be dangerous. His mother had told him that long ago. Peter cowered behind a large rock on the beach, but did not tear his eyes from the ocean. He could see something foreign shifting in the waves, something big and brown with big white sheets billowing from it so violently that they tore.

A ship.

With wide eyes, Peter observed the human vehicle in stunned silence, watching closely as the sea tore it apart. Then he saw something else which made his blood run cold. 

A tiny figure was swimming against the current, desperately trying to stay afloat. Peter continued to watch, but another unfamiliar thing had begun to flood his brain. He found himself wanting to help this person more than he’d wanted anything in the world, despite having no idea who or what they may be. 

So, again without thinking (he’d never been good at that), Peter ran towards the tempest at full speed, his coat flying out behind him, and leapt into the spray.

Immediately his coat enveloped him in a calming shield of fur and blubber, and his hands became flippers to swim with. The seal sped through the choppy waters towards the ship, dodging debris and trying to beat the currents back in a way no ordinary human (or seal, for that matter) could do. 

Fortunately for the human in the water, Peter was just in time. He winced as a sharp piece of wood was slammed into him by the waves, but ignored the pain and hurried towards the figure. Finally he could see what they looked like. It was a boy, no older than him perhaps, with shoulder-length brown hair sticking to his face as he clung to a heavy piece of strangely-shaped wood. Peter guessed it was a part of the ship, but didn’t know enough about human structures to name it. He went for the human instead.

The human screamed as Peter grabbed him and began to make his way back to the island, kicking and fighting back. Peter sighed inwardly at his stubbornness, but was saved when a huge chunk of debris smashed into the boy’s head and knocked him out cold. Now all he needed to do was drag the human back to shore and... And what? The other selkies would never accept a human. Maybe he could keep him as pet? Yeah. That was an idea.

Peter entertained himself with thoughts of keeping the brunet as his own little pet to play with and teach tricks as he dragged his unconscious body through the sea. This took much effort due to him being seemingly heavier unconscious and also because of the storm having only grown stronger, but Peter’s strength in his seal form allowed him to push through to shore.

The two boys collapsed onto the beach, Peter completely dry and the human completely drenched. Wind whipped their hair around and stole their breaths as Peter tried to move the other boy further up the sandy bank. He couldn’t leave him by the sea or it would swallow him up again.

After what felt like hours, both Peter and the boy were by the rock again, one unconscious and the other close to falling asleep. With a soft sigh, Peter slumped forwards and let sleep take him... He’d deal with the human in the morning.

*

“Hey, excuse me? Hey! Hey!” The shouts of an unknown voice startled Peter into the land of the awake, causing him to look up at whoever had roused him with half-lidded eyes and a firm frown set into his features. Whoever had the misfortune of waking him would be thrown into the sea the second sleep released him from its clutches-

 _Oh_.

It was him.

The human was looking into Peter’s eyes through his own wide brown ones, concern etched into his face. Peter stared back, not sure what to do. Eventually the boy weakly smiled, looking a bit awkward. The selkie, however, didn’t return it. He was already worried about how he was going to look after his new pet.

“U-um, I’m sorry to bother you ‘n all, but where are we? And what happened to the ship? And are you even from the ship? I don’t think I know you... What’s your name?” The sudden flood of questions startled Peter, but he tried not to let it bother him and instead answered slowly.

“This is my home. I took you from that ship. It was being eaten by the sea. I thought... maybe you shouldn’t get eaten.” The boy gasped, looking around him in shock and wonder.

“Eaten? I didn’t know the sea ate stuff! Plus you live here? That’s amazing! I live in England. It’s full of fields and pubs.” The human grinned, causing Peter’s chest to constrict painfully. He flushed, wondering why it was so hot all of a sudden. 

“The sea often eats things. It’s how it survives probably. What’s a pub?” This time the human was amused rather than shocked. Peter didn’t get it. Why did he react differently to being told he nearly died and being told a ‘pub’ wasn’t a real thing?

“A pub is a place where you go to eat and get drunk. Except we did all that on the ship anyway. Not me o’course. I’m a cabin boy.” He smiled again, and Peter noticed that the sun created a glowing halo of gold around his copper curls. The natural waves and windswept messiness of the boy’s hair looked a little like a brown ocean. And it was just as beautiful too. The thought made Peter’s heart flutter. He frowned. Maybe he was sick?

“And... what’s a cabin boy?” This time the human just laughed. It sounded different to a selkie’s laugh, rougher and less like the pealing of tiny bells. For some reason, the blond decided he liked it.

“You’re pretty weird, aren’t you? A cabin boy’s the kid on a ship who does chores and stuff, but I’m pretty lazy so I just help the cooks instead. You never told me your name.” The human changed topics so quickly it was hard to keep up, leaving Peter breathless. Already he knew that he liked his pet. He’d be a good thing to keep around for playtime.

“You’re the weird one. I’ve never met a human before. My name’s Peter.” The other boy just gave him a strange look at that.

“Aren’t you a human?” He asked after a short pause, seemingly taken aback. Peter looked at him as if the answer was obvious, then calmly shook his head.

“Of course not. Humans don’t live in places like this. They live in giant boxes which touch the clouds, and they run around making lots of noise and accidentally killing each other.” The human laughed again at that. Peter wanted to make him do it a third time. Maybe a fourth. Maybe forever. 

“We’re not all like that,” he managed through his laughter, “So what are you if you’re not a human?” He asked afterwards, still half laughing. Peter answered stiffly, beginning to feel a little offended by the human’s mockery of him.

“I am what humans call a selkie, just like everyone else on our island.” The human looked at him closely, silent all of a sudden. He raised a hand to his chin and left it there thoughtfully before meeting his gaze in order to slowly ask,

“You’re... being serious... aren’t you.” It wasn’t a question. Peter nodded.

The boy screamed.

Not in fear, however. In delight.

“Oh my goodness! You’re a real life selkie? Like, you can turn into a seal? That’s so cool! I wish I could do that! But Peter’s such a normal name for a selkie. You should be called Saoirse or Mierda or Shippensby or something. Not _Peter_.” Peter felt somewhat hurt by that. He had a nice name.

“What are you called?” He tried to sound accusatory, wanting to make fun of the boy’s name.

“I’m San. Can I call you Shippensby?” Peter just stared at him.

Then he himself burst out laughing, and San soon joined in.

They spent the next several hours talking at length about everything they could, from life in their own worlds to how they thought each other’s species would be. Nothing was what they thought it would be, but that... surprisingly wasn’t a bad thing. By the time the sun was high in the sky, they were close friends.

“I’m hungry.” San’s complaint alerted Peter to his own hunger. He nodded in agreement and rose from his rock for the first time that day.

“C’mon. I’ll introduce you to my mother, and we can get some food.” San frowned cautiously at him.

“Will your mum be alright with a human like me just waltzing in here?” He asked nervously, shifting from one foot to another.

“She won’t mind.” He lied, taking his new friend by the arm and leading him towards the village.

*

“You did _WHAT_?” Peter’s mother, Christine, shrieked from inside their hut. San shrank back uncomfortably and Peter quickly formed a barrier between them. There was a striking resemblance between the two, San found as he watched them nervously. Both has the same almost mousy pale blond hair and striking emerald green eyes so unlike the shades of green found in humans. San thought they were fascinating. He’d always been fixated by people’s eyes. You could find out so much just by looking at them.

“I saved a human. He was going to die in the storm.” Christine paced back and forth in the little hut with an exasperated yet also terrified expression. If the rest of the village found out about the human, they were done for.

“Peter, you can’t save the ocean’s sacrifices. He was destined to die there.” She pinched the bridge of her nose while both boys stared at her in horror.

“I don’t think so.” Peter responded firmly, one hand in front of San. Had he been taller than the brunet, the effect might have been greater.

“What?” Christine gave him a look of genuine confusion. Her son had never doubted the laws of the ocean before.

“If destiny brought his ship to our island, it also brought me to him. I was destined to save him, and he was destined to come here and eat some lunch.” Although his mother was terrified for this unfortunate soul, she actually had to agree with her son. Destiny really was unpredictable. So maybe... She sighed in a resigned manner. She couldn’t let her son down like that.

“Okay. Come and eat some food... um...”

“San.” The human smiled politely, victory glinting in his eyes. Christine gave him a weary smile in return before saying in a maternal manner,

“Right. San. You must be starving, you poor thing. I’m afraid the food we eat here doesn’t taste great to humans, but it’s good for you, honest.”

And so San’s life as an honorary selkie began.

*

That night, San lay beside Peter on and under a pile of blankets on the floor where the selkie usually slept. Christine was in a separate part of the hut, cut off from them by a simple curtain drawn across the room. Both boys were quiet, but neither could sleep.

After tossing and turning for what felt like an age, San finally turned to Peter.

“Hey, Peter?” He whispered, careful not to be too loud so as not to wake Christine.

“Yes?” The blond replied a little too quickly, eager to hear his pet-turned-adopted-friend’s voice again.

“I want to give you something. To say thank you for saving me.” Peter frowned at him in the darkness. Gifts were meaningless in selkie culture, but he knew how much they meant to humans. Him doing something out of boredom must have meant a lot to the person he saved in the process. So he turned his frown into a smile and waited expectantly as San slowly drew something from his pocket.

“This,” he presented Peter with a strange-looking silver object which glinted in the moonlight, “is called a paper clip. It looks like nothing, but to humans it is a very important artefact. We give them to people we care about. And, um... I care about you.” San was only thankful that Peter couldn’t see his blush in the darkness. 

Peter gazed at the paper clip with reverence, immensely flattered that he could be given such an important and beautiful gift. Gently he took it from San’s outstretched palm, fingers burning where they brushed against his skin, and tucked it into the folds of his coat where it would be safest.

“Thank you. I’ll treasure it.” San smiled softly, and Peter returned it. The comfort and warmth between them became so intense that they began to move closer to one another. Neither was sure who started it, but suddenly their arms were wrapped around each other and not one of them wanted to let go.

So they fell asleep like that, curled up into each other with a paper clip in Peter’s coat and a warm feeling in their hearts.

**Author's Note:**

> I liked the concept, but I’m too tired to write this out properly or explain why paperclips are so important in the NTverse. I nearly fell asleep in class today, and I have end of year exams (saying which ones would reveal too much about my age, but I can tell you they’re stressful) next week. Troubling times...
> 
> Prompt- Paperclips are a token of love.
> 
> This was supposed to be NTverse. I didn’t change that.
> 
> Original Number- 169.


End file.
